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Maya conflict left many images. With a few exceptions, however, they reveal limited numbers of victors and captives In contrast, glyphic accounts point to broader convulsions, and the challenge remains of linking such conflicts to the infrastructure of concerted attack and defense. Lidar, a technology using laser pulses to record and model surfaces, does so with aplomb. By now, most Mayanists accept that, in the late 4th century A.D., Classic Maya kingdoms became entangled with the distant polity of Teotihuacan, Mexico. Tikal refers to that encounter in precise detail, identifying an enigmatic, victorious belligerent, Sihyaj K’ahk’, and possible ruptures in the local dynasty. To unexpected extent, lidar shows that the western entry to Tikal bristled with numerous citadels, surveillance platforms, moats with protected settlement, and ramps for rapid ascent and descent on high ridges and hilltops. Current evidence places these features in the general time of Sihyaj K’ahk’, underscoring that the threat and actuality of violence enmeshed regions, at systemic scale.